Brasília (EFE).- The Brazilian Senate shelved a controversial constitutional reform bill approved by the lower house on Wednesday. The bill limited the power of the Judiciary to investigate and prosecute legislators suspected of any crime.
Promoted by the right-wing sector, with some support on the left as well, the bill generated massive citizen protests on Sep. 21, as it proposed a special legal regime for lawmakers.
The bill’s most controversial provision established that deputies, senators, and even political party presidents could not be investigated without authorization from the legislative chambers themselves, who would rule on the matter via secret votes.
While maintaining the current parliamentary immunity regime, under which lawmakers can only be prosecuted before the Supreme Court, the proposal included mechanisms that reduced the Judiciary’s autonomy to investigate deputies and senators.
On Wednesday, the Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee unanimously rejected the bill. The matter was then brought before the Senate, where the bill was rejected without debate in a symbolic act.
This position was opposite to that of the Chamber of Deputies, which approved the proposal last week under urgency without passing it through committees. The vote was 353 to 134.
According to Alessandro Vieira, the senator who reported on the bill in committee, the text was “clearly unconstitutional” and “seemed to have as its real objective the protection of perpetrators of serious crimes, such as corruption, money laundering, and even homicide,” given the breadth of the guarantees it offered legislators.
The proposal was presented at a time when the Supreme Court was analyzing suspicions about a dozen deputies who had allegedly committed irregularities in managing part of the state budgets distributed by Parliament.
The project sparked strong opposition from the public, who referred to it as the “Banditry Project.” On Sep. 21, thousands of people took to the streets nationwide to protest the amnesty project backed by the far right for former President Jair Bolsonaro and others convicted of coup attempts.
According to Senator Vieira, this shows that Brazilian society is “screaming in the opposite direction, demanding an end to impunity.” EFE
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